Helping people maximize their God-given potential

The other day I started reading a new book called Start by Jon Acuff. I picked the book up for two reasons: one, a friend of mine had mentioned one of his other books and I found this one instead. Two, at the beginning of 2015 I set a goal for myself to write a book… and, well it’s now June and I’m struggling. I really thought I would be further along by this point. I’m not sure what the problem is… I feel like I have something good to say, a target audience, a clear direction, but I am not writing.

The premise of Acuff’s book is how to move from average to awesome. The first few chapters were were motivating and kept my attention. But then it happen. It seems that every book has at least one idea that makes it worth it’s price. I found this idea in chapter 4, “Thirty Minutes”. These words… seemed so easy. So short. Thirty minutes! Jon writes,

“If your dream is not worth thirty minutes, you’ve either got the wrong dream or you’re just pretending you have one.”

OUCH! If you’re not willing to give thirty minutes, “then you may not be ready for awesome.” OUCH AGAIN!

I haven’t been giving my book thirty minutes a day, I thought to myself. What does that mean?! Am I pretending? Do I have the wrong dream? No, I thought. I really do want to write a book, I have for several years. It must mean that I haven’t been ready to do what is needed to write a book. And there it is… the truth. Don’t you hate the truth sometimes? It’s so hard to come to grips with the truth! The truth was this… I have been lazy. I have been making excuses. I have rationalized my inactivity. The NBA finals was on! I have not been ready to do what “Awesome” takes!

Thirty minutes. Can I do thirty minutes a day? Can you do thirty minutes? Doesn’t sound like too much, does it? I do it for other important goals I have for my life. Sounds doable. Jon writes, “I can say without a shadow of a doubt if I hadn’t found those thirty minutes, I never would have written four books.”

So, my new commitment is to claim thirty minutes every day to write. In the morning, when I am at my best. Will it work? Not sure. Lets find out. If it works I will be giving Jon Acuff much credit for helping me to reach my goal.